EM's review of Apsleys – a Heinz Beck Restaurant at The Lanesborough

A friend of mine who had been lucky with money and in love had offered to take me out for supper last night.
Not wanting to disappoint, I suggested we try the new Apsleys and see if they were indeed the future of London's culinery scene.

I could not be further from the truth.

We went for the £26 menu del giorno.

The amuse bouche was a skewer of chicken satay.

To me, the amuse bouche is like a handshake/welcome from the chef. It tempts the palate and subtly introduces the dishes and flavours that are to follow. Chicken satay in this instance, just didn't quite do it for me, and as predicted the rest of the meal was lacklustre to say the least.

My starter of slow cooked Iberian pork was probably the better of the two savoury courses. It was however still firm and lacked that distinct taste unique to the Iberian pig (all those acorns eaten gone to waste). My suspicion was that the sauce/emulsion that the meat was cooked in, overpowered the natural flavours of the pork and being rich in sugars and salts, drew out essential moisture from the meat.

It is a shame that seabream was the fish used in the main course and not sole, as that would have been closer to the truth. It was overly firm and (in the words of my dinner companion) was like “eating the sole of my shoe”.

The saving grace is definately the Rosemary ice-cream and Araguani liquid chocolate tart combination. The ice cream was like a shy maiden. With the first taste, you get hints of rosemary and then ginger and then cinnamon, none of which come across strongly. But when you finally indulge yourself with a big mouthful, The flavours dance along the tip of your tongue to the back of your throat, revealing more of their secrets as they go along and leaving almost no aftertaste.

However, presentation wise- it was really good and met my expectations.

Having a name like Heinz Beck behind your restaurant is huge, but I suspect there might be teething problems with this one. I would wait for the first star before returning.